DOUBLING FARMERS' INCOME : LINKING VARIOUS ACTIVITIES, VALUE ADDITION, EXTENSION OF KNOWLEDGE

 DOUBLING FARMERS' INCOME

(5) LINKING VARIOUS ACTIVITIES:

Inter-Ministerial Committee to examine issues relating to Doubling of Farmers’ Income (DFI) has identified the below mentioned seven sources of income to double farmers' income by 2022.  A holistic approach for linking of development activities in sectors such as water resources, soil health, food processing, rural development, power, information technology, environment, fertilisers, and other sectors to agricultural development is needed to achieve the goal of DFI but we do not witness any such sign except a few scattered efforts here and there.

(6)  POST HARVEST INFRASTRUCTURE AND VALUE ADDITION:

Report of the Committee on DFI expands the post-production value capture activities by going beyond ‘marketing’ and advocating ‘monetisation’.³ On the lines of the well-known ‘marketing efficiency’, the Committee adopts ‘monetisation efficiency’ as the right measure of value capture. Agricultural production is not the sole output from the rural economy. Agriculture in turn, sets off other near-farm and non-farm economic activities in the rural landscape. Agro-food processing industries have the potential to generate significant employment in production activities and also indirect employment through its forward and backward linkages. These industries would help in reducing post harvest losses and wastes as well as in using by-products more efficiently. This in turn will increase rural income.

The overall well-being of the rural population therefore depends on agriculture as a primary sector, and various associated secondary and tertiary sector activities that either support agriculture or are supported by agriculture.

As part of the DFI strategy, the farming household should be empowered, not only to capture the maximum value from all that is produced off the farms, but also from other near-farm economic activities. The secondary sources of income help mitigate some of the risks associated with agriculture and allows for shared income sources in a household.

(7) EXTENSION AND KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSION:

Past strategy for development of agricultural sector in India has primarily focused only on raising agricultural output and raising farm productivity.  The strategy proved successful as it led to Green Revolution and not only made India a self sufficient at aggregate level but also a net food exporter country. The new strategy focuses on farmer’s welfare by using various measures to achieve the targeted income including agricultural extension services.

Agricultural extension has been understood as an important techno-social enabler that supports farmers in their endeavours to produce more. If extension is to serve the purpose of effecting a paradigm shift in agriculture from production-centricity to income centricity it deserves to be redefined⁶.

Accordingly, the DFI Committee redefines Agricultural Extension as follows:

“A system of empowering farmers with information, knowledge, technology, skills, risk and farm management practices, across agricultural sub-sectors and along all aspects of the agricultural supply chain, so as to enable the farmers to realise higher net income from their enterprise on a sustainable basis”

 The new definition covers not only the cropping systems, but also other sub-systems including horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries, etc. emphasising thereby the importance of diversification, demand centric innovations and farming system approach.

Doubling real income of farmers till 2022-23 over the base year of 2015-16 requires annual growth of 10.41 per cent in farmers’ income (Chand, Ramesh 2017). This calls for a multipronged action of all above strategies and plans in a time bound action plan.  The above set of activities initiated by the government, symbolise the diligence and commitment to double the farmers income in a time bound manner. A major impediment to the success of these strategies is small farm sizes. A unique ‘Small Farmers, Large Field’ (SFLF) model has been first successfully experimented in Vietnam. In this model farmers physically pool their land and set up companies that operate like private businesses.  This experiment has been successfully tested in Odisha informally which shows the way forward for achieving economies of scale and reducing cost of cultivation inturn, resulting in rise in income of farmers. NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand, in a 2017 policy paper, advocated collective action for minimising the scale disadvantages faced by small and marginal farmers. The Farmer Producer Organisation/ Company approach is one way to enable them to improve their bargaining power, by pooling resources and linking them to the market.

 The strategies proposed for doubling farmers’ income include planting better seed varieties/hybrids, improved production practices, diversification towards high-value crops, development of infrastructure and market linkages, and providing access to institutional credit. Thus, government initiatives and intensions are clear and are visible in the schemes launched and multipronged efforts made during past few years but sustained and incremental efforts will be needed to achieve the goal.

 CONCLUDED 

PROF. (DR.) M. K. GHADOLIYA

VICE CHANCELLOR

SKD UNIVERSITY, HANUMANGARH (RAJ) 

REFERENCES

1.      Gulati Ashok and Sweta Saini (2016), From Plate to Plough, raising Farmers’ Income by 2022, March 28.

2.      Mishra, Promod K. (2019) Driving Indian Agriculture towards Farmers’ Welfare: Current Policy Perspectives, Inaugural address delivered at the 78^th Annual Conference of ther ISAE, at Institute of Economic Growth New Delhi, Ind. Jn. of Agri. Econ. Vol 74, No. 1 , Jan-March2019

3.      Economic Survey, GOI , 2019

4.      Doubling Farmers’ Income – Volume XIV Comprehensive Policy Recommendations, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare. Sept. 2018.

5.      PM Kisan Maan Dhan Yojana, http://vikaspedia.in/agriculture/agri-insurance/pm-kisan-maan-dhan-yojana

6.      Economic Times, The committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income, 14^th  August 2017

7.      Doubling Farmers’ Income – Volume XIV , p. 155

8.       Chand, Ramesh (2017) Doubling Farmers’ Income: Rational, Strategy, Prospects and Action Plan, Niti  Aayog, GOI, New Delhi.

9.      Samarendu Mohanty & Sampriti Baruah,2018 Agricultural economics: How doubling of farmers’ income is possible even with small landholdings, Indian Express, 1 Nov.